Page 2899 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 16 October 2007
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gravest of the failures of the Stanhope government is the health system, and I share the concern that the Chief Minister is not here in the chamber this morning to be part of this matter.
Ms MacDonald: You guys gave him a pair.
MR MULCAHY: Ms MacDonald over there, weaving her way through her palm pilot while we talk about serious issues, talks about giving a pair. The fact of the matter is that these are serious issues before the Assembly. We sit for 33 days roughly in this 12-month cycle and I think that members ought to be present unless there are compelling medical reasons for their being gone.
The health system is central to one of the reasons I ran for office. Many people in Canberra have had unsatisfactory experiences and it causes me no joy to hear of these bad examples coming forward. I would love people to be happy with the treatment they get in hospital. I have lived in parts of the world and parts of Australia where, in fact, I have been exceedingly impressed by what goes on in hospitals and the level of care delivered. But time and time again people continue to raise with me horror stories. I talk to medical specialists who give me some bad reports on what goes on in terms of health administration in this territory, and I have personal experience.
I think I have mentioned once before having a family member go into hospital and being told that if they took a few aspirin and went home that would solve their problem when, in fact, it was a deep vein thrombosis that would have been life-threatening. Fortunately, persistence resulted in getting a specialist involved and emergency procedures were put into place.
But the fact is that there are a lot of people in this community who are less articulate and less able to advance their cause who suffer in silence. We have seen a tragic loss of life in this past week or so which has prompted the Liberal opposition to spend hours discussing the gravity of our health system. I do not want members of my family or members of the family of those opposite or any other member of this community going into hospital and fearing for their well-being. I do not want to be getting complaints from constituents telling me they have waited for hours and hours and hours on end to get treatment in the Canberra Hospital. I do not want to hear people tell me that they have been on an elective surgery waiting list, an area studied by the public accounts committee, for endless periods of time because their debilitating hip condition is not considered life threatening.
We have a moral duty as an Assembly and this government has a moral duty to ensure the appropriate delivery of health care to all of our citizens. As I have said about the Assembly, in terms of our health administration we should be aiming to produce a standard of health care that is world class and second to none. According to Australian Institute of Health and Welfare waiting time statistics for 2005-06, at the 50th percentile mark people are typically waiting 61 days compared to a national average of 32. It is unacceptable. People in the highest paid city in Australia, one of the most heavily taxed communities in Australia, one of the best educated communities in Australia, are getting second rate standards of public health administration.
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